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Well, as my readers may be anxious to know the secret of his success in this "little business," I will tell them. It lay in the bottles being small in size, and containing about two glasses of wine each!
The quality had been guaranteed, not the quantity!
CHAPTER III.
MT FIRST AND ONLY APPEARANCE AS AN AUCTIONEER.
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The force of Circumstances— An infallible System—Led to Ruin—Getting Out of One Scrape into Another—A Lucky Escape.
In my lifetime I have played many parts, successfully and otherwise, but it was only on one occasion I officiated as an auctioneer. The circumstances connected with this position were too many for me, and I ascended the rostrum much against my inclination. The rostrum consisted of a small table, uncertain about the legs, with a worm-eaten desk upon it. It would have been a piece of good fortune if that shaky article of furniture had, like my friend's system of breaking the bank, broken down; but no surreptitious stamping would bring it to the ground.
Putting the best face I could upon the matter, and assuming the air of a Tattersall about to dispose of a two-thousand-guinea yearling, I proceeded to sell the various lots printed in the catalogue, making a few preliminary remarks to be in keeping with the style and manner of the Knightsbridge people.